Tuesday, November 18, 2014

I
must confess I never thought I would watch Murder She Wrote, let
alone an episode. Yet, here I am now
confessing my love for the show. I first
started watching the show one day in the summer when the Blue Jays had a rest
day, and nothing else was on. I had convinced
myself for years that there was no way in hell I would watch this boring old
people show. But on that day my only TV
viewing options were Entertainment Tonight (I hate celebrity news), or watch
Murder She Wrote; I chose the latter.

Okay
so what I initially liked about the show was that it was made in the 80’s, and
I felt really nostalgic about those years.
It had a wholesome quality about the time (despite the murders), that
wasn’t graphic or used profanity like today’s shows. While the time period drew me to the show,
what kept me watching was the excellent story line. The show is a pure mystery show that is easy
to follow, and extremely engaging. As
the story progresses (in each episode), you’re given clues as to who the
murderer is, thus allowing you to hypothesize ‘who done it.’

At
the end of each episode, Jessica Fletcher (the main protagonist) solves the
crime and you find out if your suspicions were right or wrong. The way that Jessica solves the crime is fantastic
because she uses the same clues that were shown in the episode. This is what I specifically love about the
show, because you get to solve the crime as well. The absence of this is what makes me hate current
mystery shows (CSI Miami, Criminal Minds) because the characters solve crimes
without explaining how they solved it.
This dumbs down a show and is insulting to the viewer.

Other
features about Murder She Wrote that I like are the incredible guest actors that
appear on the show. There’s hardly an
episode where I don’t recognize someone on the show from another TV series or
movie. These established actors raise
the quality of the show because they come from a time when real actors were
well educated and sophisticated. The
show also doesn’t take itself too seriously because there are great comedic
relief moments scattered throughout. Unfortunately
Murder She Wrote ended in 1996, after 12 seasons. Thankfully I am still in season 5 with plenty
of seasons left.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

This Link toy figure
is part of the World of Nintendo toy line, released by Jakks Pacific. From the first series release, I could tell
that Link was going to be the most popular figure to collect. I knew this because Nintendo rarely releases
the Legend of Zelda merchandise; in fact Yamauchi (Nintendo’s former president)
wanted only Mario to be Nintendo’s lone mascot back in the 80’s and 90’s. The result of this caused merchandise of
other popular figures to be rare, and highly collectable. I still remember back when Ocarina of Time
was released, Nintendo Power magazine was offering a Link figure that I was
never able to buy and I have wanted one ever since.

Granted throughout
the years there has been many Link figures released and Nintendo has offered
more Legend of Zelda merchandise, but I was never interested in those (except
the Figma Link, which was too expensive to get). Finally, I have found this perfect Link
figure, and at a great price $12 Canadian.
This figure is based off of the Skyward Sword version of Link. Hopefully if the toy series is successful we
might get to see other versions of Link as well, such as Toon Link and original
NES Link (though it would be alright to skip a CD-i version of Link, lol).

This toy comes nicely
packaged on a card that has beautiful artwork that displays Link swinging his
sword. Link is constructed similar to a
G.I. Joe figure, and comes with accessories such as his sword, sword case and
shield (a bonus mystery prize). The
paint job is surprisingly well done for a figure of this price range, and I
didn’t notice any flaws in the articulation.
This one is incredibly well done figure that I’m happy to add in my
Nintendo collection.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

So
since a lot of third parties are abandoning the Wii U they are now all putting their
games on sale. While it sucks to see
them go, I won’t miss them if their motives were to continue the same DLC
practices they have on other systems.
Thankfully I was able to grab a few of the games that went on sale this
weekend. (Sorry most of these games are sold out by now)

Saturday, November 8, 2014

I’ve been a hat collector for a few years now,
and one of the things I keep kicking myself over is that I never took care of
the hats I bought years ago. I just used
to wear them and not care how they looked.
I didn’t even clean them when they got dirty. I was fine with that until New Era stopped
making wool fitteds and I couldn’t buy them anymore. Once that happened I started to clean and
maintain my wool fitteds so that they could last me as long as possible. Thankfully New Era never forgot about wool
fitted collectors and has released wool fitteds consistently, though in limited
runs.

The wool fitted that
I’m showcasing here is part of their Heritage Series collection. The hats are 100% wool and are made similar
to the classic MLB hats from the mid 90’s with 3D embroidery, a flat MLB logo,
and a grey underbrim. A nice detail
about this fitted is the return of the white sweatband; a feature that I used
to hate (it’s funny how you miss something when you don’t have it
anymore). My only complaint about this
collection is the inclusion of the New Era logo on the left side. Other than that this is a beautiful hat that
reminds me of the greatness of those 90’s fitteds, and I am delighted that I
can now wear one with the current Blue Jays logo.

Brand:
New Era

Team:
Toronto Blue Jays

Style:
59Fifty, Fitted, Heritage Series

Additional:
Made in China, 100% Wool, New Era logo on the side, White Sweatband